Confinement of Excitons within GaN 1D Nanoarchitectures Formed on AlN Molecular Steps

Abstract

AbstractThe fabrication and the optical properties of ultrathin GaN quantum wells on AlN (0001) vicinal surfaces with macrosteps are studied. The employed growth condition spontaneously restricts the GaN thickness to one monolayer (ML) on a planar plane. However, because of a higher density of dangling bonds at macrosteps, 2 ML GaN can be stabilized only at step edges, which creates quantum‐wire‐like 1D nanostructures with a dimension of a few nanometers for the lateral confinement. Exciton (carrier) confinement within the 1D GaN nanostructure is predicted theoretically and is confirmed experimentally by strongly polarized photoluminescence with in‐plane twofold symmetry at a wavelength of ≈250 nm at room temperature. This study demonstrates one path to realize quantum confinement within a fine nanoarchitecture composed of nitride semiconductors and might provide clues to the future creation of novel low‐dimensional nanostructures for the UV–vis spectral range.